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Movies with great dialogue

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 5:19 pm
by Stewball
Agree, disagree, got your own list? (Of course if the subject is boring you probably didn't get this far.)

Looking for movies where dialogue was a big part of the movie, which doesn't eliminate action at all (even though it would for some). More dialogue than just one or a few, even outstanding, quotes such as The Dark Knight, Gladiator, 2001, Dirty Harry or Patton.
Listed by time period.

All About Eve
Inherit the Wind
To Kill A Mockingbird
Dr. Strangelove
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
A Lion in Winter
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Moonstruck
(I must be missing something here, this is the only movie in a 20 year gap. Some would say I also have a 30 gap with only All About Eve in it, but so much dialogue then was trite, had a forced pacing and/or was just boring. There's also a fair number I haven't seen like Key Largo.)
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
The Devil's Advocate
Fight Club
Magnolia
O Brother Where Art Thou
Undisputed
Stranger Than Fiction
V for Vendetta
The Brave One
Interview (2007)
Doubt
(500) Days of Summer

Re: Movies with great dialogue

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 6:34 pm
by prowler
my dinner with andre springs to mind - maybe not the best dialogue ever, but certainly the most dialogue-centric film.
also,
12 angry men
gertrud
billy wilder movies
the man from earth

Re: Movies with great dialogue

Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 9:10 pm
by tef
My Dinner with Andre and 12 Angry Men, like prowler said. The Princess Bride. Color of Money? Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)? Annie Hall...

I can't think of more offhand, but I wonder if people like the old snappy/quick one liners of the noir ilk.

Re: Movies with great dialogue

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 12:10 am
by ShogunRua
Dialogue is the whole part of

American Pimp (1999), although that is hilarious more for how retarded and over-the-top it is than anything. Among great films, there is

Cool Hand Luke
12 Angry Men (both versions)
Ruggles of Red Gap (current MoM on here)
Citizen Kane
Les Bonnes Femmes

among many, many others. Dialogue-centric films used to be a lot more common than they have become in the last 30 years.

Re: Movies with great dialogue

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 1:09 am
by SirStuckey
His Girl Friday
In Bruges

Re: Movies with great dialogue

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 1:55 am
by ShogunRua
SirStuckey wrote:In Bruges


That reminds me of the other Michael McDonaugh film, also with phenomenal dialogue, Six Shooter. A few more that come to mind;

Find Me Guilty
Burn after Reading

Re: Movies with great dialogue

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 11:29 am
by shalev
Movies that take place in one location tend to rely almost entirely on dialogue, examples:
Sleuth
Rope
Dog Day Afternoon (monologue count too?)
12 Angry Men - probably the best example.
I'd also might add The Exterminating Angel but I don't think there was anything great about it. (Just a great waste of time, maybe)

Stewball wrote:(500) Days of Summer

I pretty much agree with everything on your list (that I've seen), but I don't really understand this choise.
It seems like this is one of your favorites, the way you rave about. But if this count as 'great dialogue', than every rom com from the last decade can count as well. I mean to me it's just a bit above average, but if anything about it might be considered great, it's certainly not the dialogue.

Re: Movies with great dialogue

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 5:47 am
by Stewball
shalev wrote:I pretty much agree with everything on your list (that I've seen), but I don't really understand this choise.
It seems like this is one of your favorites, the way you rave about. But if this count as 'great dialogue', than every rom com from the last decade can count as well. I mean to me it's just a bit above average, but if anything about it might be considered great, it's certainly not the dialogue.


I know I'm marching to a different drummer on this one. Either I hear something it's saying that most people don't, or I'm hearing things. In any case, what I'm hearing is music to my ears, while most people get stuck on monotonous echoing jungle rom coms in their ears--which it definitely is not. It is "anti-".

I won't be so bold as to suggest you watch it again, but you might take a look at the quotes, which I did not submit btw. The critical quote was missing, however, which is probably just as well. That one, the end, needs to be seen and heard in context.s

(OK, I'll go willingly, I won't cause any more trouble.) :oops:

Re: Movies with great dialogue

Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 11:29 am
by shalev
Stewball wrote:while most people get stuck on monotonous echoing jungle rom coms in their ears--which it definitely is not. It is "anti-".

I think it has too many rom com features to be considered "anti-". The ending alone, refreshing as it may be, is not enough. Not being a fan of the genre at all, the only reason I watched it was I hoped it would be "anti-", or at least very different, and was pretty disappointed in that regard.

Now spefically the dialogue - the fact I don't remember any shred of it kinda says it all I think. didn't find the quotes so great either, amusing maybe, nothing spectacular. Perhaps I'm too much of cynic for this kind of movies (how come there isn't a 'cynic' emoticon?)

Re: Movies with great dialogue

Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2010 1:43 pm
by Stewball
shalev wrote:
Stewball wrote:while most people get stuck on monotonous echoing jungle rom coms in their ears--which it definitely is not. It is "anti-".

I think it has too many rom com features to be considered "anti-". The ending alone, refreshing as it may be, is not enough. Not being a fan of the genre at all, the only reason I watched it was I hoped it would be "anti-", or at least very different, and was pretty disappointed in that regard.

Now spefically the dialogue - the fact I don't remember any shred of it kinda says it all I think. didn't find the quotes so great either, amusing maybe, nothing spectacular. Perhaps I'm too much of cynic for this kind of movies (how come there isn't a 'cynic' emoticon?)


Dialogue doesn't have to be dramatic, just pointed. There are jillion classic quotes in O Brother, but you wouldn't used any of them as examples of the King's English. The dialogue, and especially the narration, was continually pointing at the ending, which you don't really see until the end.

I think we may differ in that I consider myself a romantic cynic. I want to expose romance, or love, for what it really is, but correct me if I'm wrong, you're cynical about the whole idea of romance/love--which is sort of the way the movie started out, but not where it ended up. She was the cynic about the whole concept of love, she was Sid Vicious, yet she was turned around as he eventually was from his initial approach, by reality. We can't deny love, but we certainly can, and must, deny any cosmic imperative attributed to it--which is certainly anti- 99.8% of today's romantic comedies. But most people don't pick up on the difference, or at least the importance of the difference.

Or we could go back to arranged marriages. :shock: